The Model of Universals in Kalam Atomism: On al-Juwaynī’s Theory of al-Aḥwal

The theory of ahwāl, which can be evaluated as the understanding of universals of Imām al-Haremeyn Ebü’l-Maālī al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085) and its earlier Ash‘arī theological system, is also considered as the common truths of this system. However, in this period, two different conceptions of truth stand out: those who adopt the theory of ahwāl and those who do not. While those who reject ahwāl evaluate the truths in a nominal framework, those who defend this theory talk about the common state and truth for the existing (mevcūd) in a realistic manner. In this direction, although they have approached the Aristotelian understanding of universal by capturing a realist method through the theory of states, there are fundamental differences between them. Although the Aristotelian understanding of the universal is about the objects, the ahwāl of the Theologians are limited to the essence-accident binary, which are the building blocks of objects in the created (hādis) universe. In other words the Theologians are realists in the building blocks of objects, but nominalists in the object’s layer. In addition, ahwāl are not accepted as subject in propositions, unlike Aristotelian universals. Because of this form of the ahwāl, the second essences were not included in the Ash‘arī theology of the period. Finally, ahwāl are accepted as adjectives beyond the figurative narrative. For this reason, although the “place” of states is still uncertain, this place is not the word, mind, object or beyond-object. In this framework, the theory of states will be evaluated in three ways in this article, namely “figure”, “extend” and “place”.